Narcissistic · Splendour

Well, Thea and I dragged ourselves out of the Big Ditch (Randy's term for the Grand Canyon) yesterday about noontime--making it a 6-hour hike covering 10 miles. Not great, given the elevation gain in the West Canyon where we were hiking was only about 2500 feet. But HOT--good grief. Anyway, I'm in pain right now, time to go take some more advil.

Snakes, it seems to me, are a lot like sharks. Except they are smaller and mostly live on land. Another difference: I have seen at least 15 snakes in Santa Barbara in the past two years, and while I know there are likely more sharks than that offshore, well, this post is about snakes on a trail. So, organized by trail and very loosely by dates, the tabulation is as follows:

Rattlesnake Canyon
1. Fall 2004, Rattlesnake on my first hike in Santa Barbara.
2. Spring 2005, some sort of garden snake near Gibralter Road.
3. Spring 2005, a different sort of garden snake near Gibralter Road.

San Ysidro
4/5. Summer 2006, two probably harmless snakes, on the same hike. One was a baby that slithered on me when I fell.

Romero Canyon
6. Spring 2005, HUGE rattlesnake on the upper, overgrown part of the trail.
7. Summer 2006, unknown snake that wouldn't move off the trail.

Inspiration Point/Tunnel Trail
8. Summer 2005, large snake, I forget what kind.
9. Summer 2006, large king snake (?). Laura was not pleased.
10. Summer 2006, long thin tree snake! the day we saw Snakes on a Plane.

Cold Springs
11/12/13/14. Summer 2005, garden snake and three baby kings above the road--all on the same hike.
15. Fall 2005, garden snake close to the tree on the ridge.
16. Summer 2006, big rattlesnake that rattled at me! boo, hiss!

There are more I'm sure I'm forgetting, but these were the most memorable. This does not count the large, coiled, sand-colored (I should say rock-colored) rattlesnake I nearly stepped on in the Grand Canyon Summer of 2005, during a scenic detour through the snake bog.

as fun as it is to secretly read other people's live journals, i have never created my own thus far. but it's good to take a break from 3+ hours of mind-numbing t.v. on a t.v. with only one, sad sad channel.